This project will study the history of the medical and police registration of prostitutes in mid-Victorian Britain, as established by the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866, and 1869. It will focus on the medical arguments underlying the enactment of the Acts, the coalition of military and medical forces that lobbied for their enactment, the medical institutions established under the Acts, and the medical statistics on venereal disease among prostitutes and enlisted men which were generated by the enforcement of the Acts. With the exception of workhouse facilities, the Contagious Diseases Acts represented the sole instance of state support for the treatment of veneral disease among the civilian population in Great Britain prior to 1917, and hence a unique Victorian experiment in social medicine. In addition to the institutional developments under the Acts, the project will explore the long-term consequences of the abolitionist campaign against the Acts, in particular its impact on subsequent public policy towards the treatment of venereal disease and on feminist attitudes towards doctors and male vice. Finally, by comparing the C.D. Acts controversy with the public debate between regulationists and feminists which erupted during World War I, one can explore the degree to which ideological and moral assumptions limited scientific inquiry into the treatment and control of venereal disease and shaped social, medical and legal policy. While utilizing the techniques of intellectual and archivally-based social history, the study will also employ interdisciplinary methods.